Trama

Jessica travels to New Orleans and is caught up in a web of voodoo related murders.

For the fourth time in three months, a man is murdered by machete in New Orleans, Louisiana, with, as a calling card, a rooster foot voodoo talisman. Victim Jim Nash was an intern reporter at the Daily News, a colleague of Tom McCray and Cynthia Broussard (daughter of Emily). Nash believed the voodoo was just a colorful cover for a turf war over restaurant control. Jim was supposed to pick up Jessica from the airport and help her with some local research on voodoo and crime. She stays with Senator Brent Renwyck, whose club is in financial trouble even before it opens, so he took a nasty loan from mobster Frank Roussel. Yvette Dauphin's daughter Priscilla, the club's singer, shows Emily an anonymous letter claiming that Arthur Broussard was both women's father, confirmed by Yvette. They were both after a share of the considerable estate. Julliard confirms Arthur anonymously paid for Priscilla's music studies. Roussel's front-man Carter overhears Tom tell the senator he knows all about the dirty money to compensate the squandered Broussard estate in exchange for help with mob money laundering. When a financial audit will bring everything into the open, the senator is found dead from a heart attack, beside a voodoo doll. NOPD Detective Lieutenant Alex Tibideaux, already on the voodoo murders, and Jessica, who got Jim's notes from Tom, investigate.—KGF Vissers

Jessica Fletcher is in New Orleans doing research for her next novel when she learns that her research assistant Jim Nash has been killed, the latest victim in what has been dubbed the Bayou machete killings all of which suggest that voodoo is involved. Jessica is staying with her good friend Emily Broussard Renwyck, married to Brent Renwyck the owner of an upscale nightclub. His club is in trouble and he is forced into a business partnership with some very shady characters. Meanwhile, Priscilla Dauphin has received an anonymous letter claiming that Emily's father is her father as well. Her mother Yvette, a lifelong employee of the Broussard family and Emily's one-time nanny, confirms that it's true. When Brent is found dead with a voodoo doll beside him, talk of voodoo and mysticism is everywhere but Jessica is certain that there is a more practical solution to what she believes is plain old murder.—garykmcd